Forensic Genealogy

Forensic Genealogy is presently recognized by the FBI as an extremely valuable tool for solving decades old crimes and also in identifying previously unknown victims. John Doe or Jane Doe.

Forensics and Genealogy have combined, to provide a powerful and unstoppable force in solving the previously unsolvable. By applying Forensic examination techniques to Genealogy, researchers opened up a myriad of avenues showing them some totally different perspectives.

DNA has been used to link perpetrators and victims, with privacy issues arising surrounding those involved in the commission of the crimes. Should criminals be protected? Does it violate their privacy or that of their relatives, who have registered in the Genealogy Banks? What ramifications are there, for this ultimate sacrifice of privacy?

Should the technology that enables national law enforcement to definitively pinpoint certain individuals, be used as evidence to convict them? Is it legal? Is it ethical? Do the ends really justify the means?

You may argue that the world seems so much smaller and how we fit into it, on a global level, is more important now, than ever. It is the age of information or of misinformation and how we use that data has its’ own consequences. How much information is too much information and how do we filter through it all, just for the factual content?

Other techniques employed by researchers in this field, have included photographic evidence and public records such as City Directories, Census Reports, Property and Military Records. Most of these resources are available to anyone with an internet connection.

In the thousands of searches conducted, I have found numerous lost relatives, proof of genetically inherited syndromes, evolving trends amongst family members and some very disturbing, close relationships. All discoveries were very much to the contrary of the verbal histories.

Francina A. married her younger, first cousin, Ephraim E. and they had five children: Seth L., Olie E., George W., Algie B. and Fred A., in Maine. Seth L. first married Vidella M. and then Lucinda T., while Algie B. married Lucy E., George W. became the father-in-law to Gladys M.

Gladys M., had a half-brother Seth O., who at 17, married 30-year-old Emeline. After her death, at age 30, Seth O. married a pregnant, teenaged, Myrtle V., whose own mother, Leydia L., at 13, had married 40-year-old Frank B. and given birth to Myrtle V. at the age of 14.

Seth O. and Emeline would have a son, William H. S., that would impregnate the teenaged housekeeper, Velma B., while she was employed by his aunt Louisa S., with whom he was living at the time.

Velma B.’s ancestors were from the part of West Athens, Maine called “Happy Hollow”, a “colony of paupers and idiots long known in Maine as “the Somerset wild men”.” Site of “The Hard Cider Murder”.

Lucinda T. became pregnant at age 12, by 19-year-old Lorenzo F., but did not marry the father of that child, until six years after the baby’s birth. Two husbands predeceased her, Lucinda T. would marry her third husband, Seth L. and become Gladys M.’s and Seth O.’s step-mother.

Lucy E., with her employer, Algie B., the father of her illegitimate child, left their newborn daughter outside, to die of exposure, in the cold, early spring of Maine. When Lucy E. married Algie B., soon afterwards, suspicions were raised and they were charged with murder.

Vidella M., was only 23-years-old, with 2-month-old boy, Seth O. and toddler girl, Gladys M., who died from “Circumcision of Right Arm”. We can deduct from her COD and Seth’s birth record, that she was left-handed and most likely suffering from severe, post-partum psychosis.

Louisa E., who allegedly died from “Heart Failure”, actually suffered from “Carcinoma of the Liver” with “Malnutrition” as a contributing factor for a Cause of Death. Most certainly, Louisa’s heart did fail, while she simultaneously drank and starved herself to death.

Mildred E., coincidentally, died on her 22nd Wedding Anniversary, from a “Heart Attack”. Yet, the account in the newspaper reported that the car Mildred E. was driving, “skidded” into the path of an oncoming truck, about a mile away from her home in Lancaster, Massachusetts. According to the medical examiner, she died from “Multiple Internal Injuries”, including no doubt, a massive one to her heart.

Gladys M., the 100% Caucasian woman, whom family members claimed was of Native American descent and had attained the elevated status of “Folk Hero” in the Genealogical Chart. Gladys was knocked off her Indian Princess pedestal by the presentation of facts.

The fact that her ancestors’ family trees merged and those of her future husband’s did as well, were of no immediate concern to them. The practice continued into the 20th century, with complete disregard to modern laws, concerned with preventing those types of marriages.

Multiple marriages, illegitimate births, adoptions, abandonment, intoxication, theft, suicide and murder, were some of the selections on the menu most days and the taste of it was starting to get pretty nasty.

When you find enough mugshots online, to fill a family photo album, you might need to examine some important family dynamics. Those achievements were not in the scope of my initial searches, but queries of “Name” + “State” produced some very unexpected returns.

Genealogy is public in nature and the dead have no rights. Their living descendants also have no recourse for revoking the publication of their ancestors’ transgressive activities. Libel and slander apply only to making false statements. You can’t be sued for telling too much truth.

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